Good news today for business owners, as Chris Christie signaled he won’t support an increase in the state’s minimum wage.

The governor previously was somewhat more reserved in the past, saying he didn’t like the idea, and wasn’t even all that fond of people who were only making seven bucks an hour, because how is that supposed to fuel a comeback? — but he didn’t outright promise to kill it until Thursday.

It’s great news for business owners, as we argued on the editorial page this week, who in this still-weak economy have all the confidence of the chess club captain asking a girl to the seventh-grade dance. There would be an outsized impact on retailers, for instance, who employ a lot of minimum-wage workers. Paying them more at a time when sales are down, amid all the chatter of this recovery’s diminishing returns, will probably lead to job cuts, or else will further stall any kind of jobs comeback in this sector.

Hiking the minimum wage right now makes about as much sense as promising a 10 percent cut to the income tax. At least no one’s talking about that any more.

Minimum wage, maximum resistance

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Good news today for business owners, as Chris Christie signaled he won’t support an increase in the state’s minimum wage.

The governor previously was somewhat more reserved in the past, saying he didn’t like the idea, and wasn’t even all that fond of people who were only making seven bucks an hour, because how is that supposed to fuel a comeback? — but he didn’t outright promise to kill it until Thursday.

It’s great news for business owners, as we argued on the editorial page this week, who in this still-weak economy have all the confidence of the chess club captain asking a girl to the seventh-grade dance. There would be an outsized impact on retailers, for instance, who employ a lot of minimum-wage workers. Paying them more at a time when sales are down, amid all the chatter of this recovery’s diminishing returns, will probably lead to job cuts, or else will further stall any kind of jobs comeback in this sector.

Hiking the minimum wage right now makes about as much sense as promising a 10 percent cut to the income tax. At least no one’s talking about that any more.